>>I'm looking into an industrial application that would require reading some remote temperatures, and controlling a few motors through relays. Basically I want to build a VFP application that does "normal" business stuff, but in addition ... monitor and control (to a minor extent) some remote gear. I read a bit on the "Raspberry Pi" microcomputer, but thought that I saw some issues that pushed me away. I also found the "Arduino" ... another computer on a chip device that supported some serial communication. The bottom line on my quick review was that I could write my code in VFP faster than I could write it in Python3 or C++ (which the two mentioned use respectively), and all I really need to build myself a Programable Logic Controller ("PLC") is VFP, access to a serial port, a handful of relays and temperature probes, a big spool of wire and some electrical connectors.
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>>Oh yea ... I also need to be pointed to some appropriate literature that can tell me how to make this all happen. I don't have any details on the specifics of the project, as there is no project. I thought that if I picked up some capability along these lines, that I could go out and find a project.
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>>Actually I did something a lot like this many years ago in a Clipper program that I wrote to talk to a "smart valve". It needed a special board to hook up to, that got installed inside the PC that was used to run the process. I was talking over a couple of rs232 serial lines at the time, "directly" from my Clipper app.
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>>Any thoughts on where to pick up info on generating serial input/output to multiple devices from my VFP code, and what to look out for once I get past the edge of my computer?
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>>Bob
>
>Hi Bob,
>
>In general I would not advice this way. While it is possibe to do such stuff (I think a search in this forums , Download and FAQ for serial classes will produce some stuff). VFP is not the right tool. There are a lot of considerations
>-not a Real-time operating system (RTOS)
>-needs a lot of power for nothing
>-lot of trouble with the RS232. There are only USB to RS232 today - and half of them you'ill have trouble with. There is a major hickup with this stuff in the moment. (Illegal copies killed by a update of the legal product)
>-well, I think a can code a kind of a database on a PLC but there are better ways
>- ....
>-If this is real industrial it's not professional. get a real PLC
>-If this is private gadget, get RasPi / Arduino or the likes
>--If you understand VFP, Phyton is not that far away.
>
>This is like eating your soup with a fork. It will do - but the spoon wins. :)

I have not idea about other issues but there isn't any trouble about RS232 with VFP. I developed POS and Restaurant POS applications with VFP. These applications work with USB devices same time RS232 devices (displays, scales...).